Meanwhile, TheBigFreaks.com has a new podcast interview with Fallout 3 Lead Designer Emil Pagliarulo. In the podcast, Emil talks about Fallout 3 and Oblivion at length — discussing characters, DLC, how Tranquility Lane came to be, and much more.

Xbox’s Major Nelson recently revealed the most played games on Xbox LIVE for 2009. Fallout 3 cracked the list at #13. Not bad for a single player RPG from 2008. Fallout 3 also ranked as the #3 GFWL title, while id Software’s DOOM 3 ranked as the #6 most played title on the original Xbox.

Back in November, IGN ranked Oblivion and Fallout 3 amongst the top 25 360 games of all time. This month the site completed their list of the top 25 PS3 games — ranking Oblivion at #18 and Fallout 3 at #5. Below is Chris Roper’s comments on Oblivion:

“Addiction, we know they name. Bethesda’s fourth entry in its Elder Scrolls franchise was huge, featuring sprawling landscapes that you could explore for tens or even hundreds of hours. What had me sold was a couple hours into my adventure when I ran into a few vampires and realized that I could be turned if I allowed it (or wasn’t careful). That’s the sort of thing that I love about Bethesda’s work.”

X-Play includes Fallout 3 in a wrap up of their favorite games of the decade. Check out the video below…

Just as some look back, other sites are looking forward to the games that are coming this year. Yesterday GameSpy shared the 30 games they’re looking forward to most — with both RAGE and Fallout: New Vegas making their list.

For more sites looking back at old games and looking forward to new games, check out these links…

Speaking of Brink, in an Tech Radar article titled ” The science and art of level design,” Splash Damage’s Neil Alphonso talks about some multiplayer maps that inspired him. Here’s an excerpt:

“The first levels that always come into my mind are ‘The Dark Zone’ and ‘The Bad Place’ from the original Quake (DM4 and DM6, respectively), as they played a huge role in my decision to pursue a career in the games industry. A more recent single player focused example is the outstanding ‘All Ghillied Up’ for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a level in which you re-enact a past mission of your hard-nosed CO. All three of those levels would certainly qualify as classics among level designers, but by now that list has gotten pretty large!”

In other news, Pete was featured in a recent feature in Inc Magazine — discussing how the gaming industry continues to be successful during a recession. Read it here.

Finally, I came across a new review for Oblivion at VG Chartz. Interesting to see folks taking the time to review a title that’s nearly four years old.

Reader Comments

I was just looking at the top 20 games on XBL for ’09. I gotta say it’s pretty funny seeing demos on there rather than the full games. Like Halo Wars lol, I guess people don’t like it enough to buy it.

I can’t believe Halo 3 is still at the top. It’s almost always #1 at the end of the week. After all these years. I can’t comprehend that to be honest. Then again I only really liked the 1st Halo.

I also can’t believe a new Oblivion review lol. But that game has a lot of content, and it takes a couple years to know it with confidence. But that’s when you know you’ve made a great game.

Yes its pretty cool to see reviews still coming out for OBLIVION. An rpg that reminds us just like being human a flaw or two doesnt ruin the whole picture.

HALF LIFE 2 is one of my all time favorites and one of the few games in the last decade that i could not stop playing til i finished it. Traveling them lonely roads and coming across empty desolate towns which still had a sense of life to them was incredible. Its like people were here just a few days ago but now they’re all..gone.

The ending was amazing with its lovecraftian and sci-fi ambience.
Reminds me of the cool and creepy feeling i got at the end of QUAKE 4.

Thnks Emil for coming on the show we had a great time interviewing you. Also thanks for the insight into the dev team at Bethesda as well as a look into your philosophies on design. We look forward to talking with you again sometime.